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[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 40 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 40

 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that active duty 
  military personnel who are stationed or residing in the District of 
 Columbia should be permitted to exercise fully their rights under the 
       Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 22, 2013

 Mr. Gingrey of Georgia submitted the following resolution; which was 
      referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION

 
 Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that active duty 
  military personnel who are stationed or residing in the District of 
 Columbia should be permitted to exercise fully their rights under the 
       Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Whereas the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution provides: `A well 
        regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the 
        right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.';
Whereas approximately 40,000 servicemen and women across all branches of the 
        Armed Forces either live in or are stationed on active duty within the 
        Washington, DC metropolitan area, and unless these individuals are 
        granted a waiver as serving in a law enforcement role, they are subject 
        to the District of Columbia's onerous and highly restrictive laws on the 
        possession of firearms;
Whereas military personnel, despite being extensively trained in the proper and 
        safe use of firearms, are therefore deprived by the laws of the District 
        of Columbia of handguns, rifles, and shotguns that are commonly kept by 
        law-abiding persons throughout the United States for sporting use and 
        for lawful defense of their persons, homes, businesses, and families;
Whereas the District of Columbia has one of the highest per capita murder rates 
        in the Nation, which may be attributed in part to previous local laws 
        prohibiting possession of firearms by law-abiding persons who would have 
        otherwise been able to defend themselves and their loved ones in their 
        own homes and businesses;
Whereas the Gun Control Act of 1968, as amended by the Firearms Owners' 
        Protection Act, and the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act, provide 
        comprehensive Federal regulations applicable in the District of Columbia 
        as elsewhere, and existing District of Columbia criminal laws punish 
        possession and illegal use of firearms by violent criminals and felons; 
        consequently, there is no need for local laws that only affect and 
        disarm law-abiding citizens;
Whereas, on June 26, 2008, the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of 
        District of Columbia v. Heller held that the Second Amendment protects 
        an individual's right to possess a firearm for traditionally lawful 
        purposes, and thus ruled that the District of Columbia's handgun ban and 
        requirements that rifles and shotguns in the home be kept unloaded and 
        disassembled or outfitted with a trigger lock to be unconstitutional;
Whereas, on July 16, 2008, the District of Columbia enacted the Firearms Control 
        Emergency Amendment Act of 2008 (D.C. Act 17-422; 55 DCR 8237), which 
        places onerous restrictions on the ability of law-abiding citizens from 
        possessing firearms, thus violating the spirit by which the Supreme 
        Court of the United States ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller; and
Whereas, on February 26, 2009, the United States Senate adopted an amendment on 
        a bipartisan vote of 62-36 by Senator John Ensign to S. 160, the 
        District of Columbia House Voting Rights Act of 2009, which would fully 
        restore Second Amendment rights to the citizens of the District of 
        Columbia: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that 
active duty military personnel who are stationed or residing in the 
District of Columbia should be permitted to exercise fully their rights 
under the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and 
therefore should be exempt from the District of Columbia's restrictions 
on the possession of firearms.
                                 <all>
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